Bill Hicks
William Melvin Hicks is a bonafide genius. Despite suffering from pancreatic cancer and leaving this world at the age of only 32 he managed to forge a career as a comedian, social commentator and, most importantly, prophet. Bills message to the world was one of love and evolution. His routines were all about unveiling the hypocrisy and absurdity of the world around him and serving them up to audiences in an angry, often crude, but devastatingly funny way.
Such was his confidence in his beliefs that he would often turn his back on the audience while he contemplated what he was saying or was going to say next. While he won most audiences over with ease he occasionally came across a hostile crowd in some backward hillbilly county and suffered a couple of attacks after these shows. One particular time two rednecks came up to him after the show and began to threaten him. “Hey buddy, we’re Christians and we don’t like what you’re saying”. Bill retorted “Then forgive me” with bemused puzzlement.
Before his death in 1994 Bill became very interested in how governments keep control of the populace through manipulation of the media. He described how a power elite that exist above our elected governments and made up of members of royalty, media barons and corporate bosses control what we know about certain events in order to keep their positions as masters of the universe. This may sound like paranoid ramblings but he backed his theory up with clever routines about the Kennedy assassination and his own experience of censorship on the Letterman show. His 12th appearance on the show was cut in its entirety due to a number of “hot points” brought up by the controlling network despite his material having already being approved by the shows producers. One of the main reasons given was because of a joke he made about pro-life groups. During the commercial break on the show he was due to appear on a pro-life advert aired quickly revealing the reason for the networks problem with the joke. Bill was extremely angry over the whole affair and decided not to use the mainstream media from that point onwards proclaiming that “Freedom of speech exists…as long as you can pay for it…”
Such was his confidence in his beliefs that he would often turn his back on the audience while he contemplated what he was saying or was going to say next. While he won most audiences over with ease he occasionally came across a hostile crowd in some backward hillbilly county and suffered a couple of attacks after these shows. One particular time two rednecks came up to him after the show and began to threaten him. “Hey buddy, we’re Christians and we don’t like what you’re saying”. Bill retorted “Then forgive me” with bemused puzzlement.
Before his death in 1994 Bill became very interested in how governments keep control of the populace through manipulation of the media. He described how a power elite that exist above our elected governments and made up of members of royalty, media barons and corporate bosses control what we know about certain events in order to keep their positions as masters of the universe. This may sound like paranoid ramblings but he backed his theory up with clever routines about the Kennedy assassination and his own experience of censorship on the Letterman show. His 12th appearance on the show was cut in its entirety due to a number of “hot points” brought up by the controlling network despite his material having already being approved by the shows producers. One of the main reasons given was because of a joke he made about pro-life groups. During the commercial break on the show he was due to appear on a pro-life advert aired quickly revealing the reason for the networks problem with the joke. Bill was extremely angry over the whole affair and decided not to use the mainstream media from that point onwards proclaiming that “Freedom of speech exists…as long as you can pay for it…”
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